The library supports the learning, teaching and research of the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech). To ensure that required information resources are available for academic pursuits by students and faculty, the university has provided  funding since its inception for acquisition of such resources. In consideration of programs offered by the university as well as industry trends, the library spends more than 80% of its collection budget on electronic resources. Using world-class universities as benchmarks, the library provides ample resources for every program from Mathematics to Biology and from Computer Science to Mechanic Engineering. Though its focus is on science and technology programs, the library is also developing a core collection on Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities in order to meet the demands by the university to develop a whole-person education model. As of Dec 2023, the library has a total of 292,617 Chinese and foreign volumes of books (216,350 in Chinese and 76,267 in foreign languages), 65 titles of Chinese newspapers and periodicals, and 24 titles of foreign language newspapers and periodicals. There are 136 Chinese and foreign language databases (27 Chinese and 109 foreign languages), including 704,829 e-books and 78,206 e-journals. Moreover, by using CALIS, NSTL and Shenzhen Document Network, faculty and students of the university can have access to a variety of resources hosted by other institutions across China as well as within the city of Shenzhen itself where SUSTech is located.

The library was officially opened on the startup campus in 2011. By the end of 2020, three libraries, the Lynn Library, the Yidan Library, and the Learning Nexus, with a total construction area of over 20,000 square meters, were made available for use on campus. These three libraries reflect the latest trends of educational architectural design, featuring a variety of spaces required by users of an academic library in the 21st century.

The library provides both on-site and virtual services, such as loans, references, citation query, and workshops on information literacy. In order to improve the efficiency and quality of the services, the library envisions making itself a place where advanced technologies and facilities are applied. Examples of such endeavors include the so-called “New Generation” cloud-based ILS, a Google-like discovery system to enhance the experience of finding information, multi-functional large screens for students in their group work, and a variety of social media to connect the library and its users.

Moreover, programs and platforms have been developed to provide support to learning, teaching and research activities, such as series of Information Literacy Education workshops and embedded classes, the Knowledge Commons (the institutional repository of SUSTech) and work done for the assessment of research competitiveness of the university as a whole as well as individual schools and departments capacity.

Keeping pace with the fast development of SUSTech, the library aims to become a center for academic activities and resources of a world class university in the foreseeable future. The library team is working hard at this with such an ambition acting as a catalyst to guide the library’s daily operations.